Florence Bascom (1862 - 1945)

Florence Bascom was the first woman hired by the United States Geological Survey, the second American woman to earn a Ph.D. in geology, and the second woman elected to the Geological Society of America. Her main work was in studying the geomorphology of the Mid-Atlantic Piedmont region. Her work with petrographic techniques is still influential today. Florence Bascom was the second woman to earn her Ph.D in geology in the United States, and the first woman to receive a Ph.D from Johns Hopkins University, in 1893. She became the first woman to work for the United States Geological Survey, in 1896. As well as being one of the first women to earn a master's degree in geology, she was known for her innovative findings in this field, and led the next generation of notable female geologists. Geologists consider her to be the "first woman geologist in this country [America]." While studying at Johns Hopkins she was forced to sit behind a screen so as not to disturb the men in the class, whose education was the priority. Since Geology at the time was purely a male discipline, Bascom faced many challenges getting her education and establishing herself in her field; this led to her becoming known as the "Pioneer of Women Geologists." source: Wikipedia Bascom founded Bryn Mawr’s department of Geology in 1901. She proceeded to teach and train a generation of young women in this department. In 1937, 8 out of 11 of the women who were Fellows of the Geological Society of America were graduates of Bascom’s course at Bryn Mawr College.

Known for
Contributing ontributed to a special type of identification for acidic volcanoes.

Her journal, The Structures, Origin, and Nomenclature of Acidic Volcanic Rocks of South Mountain, begins by identifying various rock structures formed by the volcano. Bascom argues that South Mountain's rock formations have changed over time, with some rocks originally showing signs of being rhyolite, but now holocrystalline rock. These rocks defy the nomenclature used to identify rocks invented by German and English scientists, so she created prefixes to add to these pre-existing names, to identify acidic changes in rocks. The prefixes she came up with are meta, epi, and apo

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